I can actually verify this one from personal experience. I was making 15 an hour for a company. They paid the temp company 35 an hour. I saw the invoices. That was with a company called teksystems. I did temp work also for the state of illinois. I did various admin stuff there. made like 11 an hour. They paid 20 an hour for me. So yeah the AC is actually correct. The temp shit is a racket for the temp companies.

I think something that would be interesting for you maybe to talk about, or have a speaker talk about, is social skills for people who are interested in CS as a career. I'm an extrovert so I don't have issues talking with users and colleagues, but so many people in CS do nowadays. I happen to have some modicum of IT skill, but I see lots of folks hired into IT nowadays that aren't really great at IT, but great with people. Especially user support fields. And before y'all say it, yes I know those aren't ideal, but we all gotta start somewhere right?

I would also think maybe have a couple speakers with some real world XP would be nice. Not just coders, but maybe a tech support person or a network admin. Perhaps someone in a field that is growing. I work in Healthcare Informatics and that is a booming field.

Just kind of look outside the box and I think you will get a large group than just your core that way.

Exceptional point my AC friend. I'm sure he was stupid enough to think he was doing something "leet" though. I would say to be "leet" enough to get a security company to look at you, you should probably hack something other than your former employer that you already had high level access too. I would have loved to screw over a couple places, but I had the foresight to know that hacking their shitty ERP system was gonna get me nowhere.

Hell even getting a job as a fry cook might be tough nowadays. Too many non cons needing jobs.

An anonymous reader writes: "Engineers at Stanford have developed a prototype single-fiber endoscope that improves the resolution of these much-sought-after instruments fourfold over existing designs. The advance could lead to an era of needle-thin, minimally invasive endoscopes able to view features out of reach of today's instruments." — Stanford Report

An anonymous reader writes: The details are in the digits today, Thursday, March 14. Put another way, today is for pi. Math enthusiasts around the world are geeking out because today is Pi Day. When numerically writing the date in month/day format, March 14 (3/14) closely resembles the first digits of the number pi, 3.14, which is the ratio of circumference to diameter of a circle.

adityaRZ writes: all you guys definitely know that today, Samsung will launch the Galaxy S IV in New York. Just a few hours ahead, Samsung will reveal of samsung Galaxy S IV to the public and you can watch it on youtube at the event ‘unpacked’ live stream. more and watch it here http://goo.gl/C4iHU

FBeans writes: New York Times: "Physicists announced Thursday they believe they have discovered the subatomic particle predicted nearly a half-century ago, which will go a long way toward explaining what gives electrons and all matter in the universe size and shape."

So it's back to the LHC to find out what type of Higg's Boson this is.

From The Independant:"Cern says that confirming what type of boson the particle is could take years and that the scientists would need to return to the Large Hadron Collider — the world's largest 'atom smasher' — to carry out further tests. This will measure at what rate the particle decays and compare it with the results of predictions, as theorised by Edinburgh professor Peter Higgs 50 years ago."

Couldn't agree more with you on this. I played a lot of Nintendo as a kid. Mostly Zelda and the Mario stuff. To be honest that is all I really ever played. Wasn't a really hard core gamer and I really didn't use a PC all that much. Then I hit my 20's an feel in love with software development. I still really don't use a PC that much when I get home, just be cause to be honest, I am tired of staring at a screen all day.

Being a girl( I swear I really am female!!!), I have some insight for you. My mom and best friend are very much the people that fit the stereotype. Both of them ADORE pink frilly stuff, love to shop, have a hardcore penchant for knickknacks and are generally very girly. Hell they even have "typically" female jobs, a cosmetologist and a nurse. I, on the other hand, think pink of any sort is hideous, prefer WoW to the Lifetime channel and work in IT. Doesn't mean I don't do girly things though. I love to shop for..... yes shoes. I think I have like 30 pairs. It's my little thing. All people have some piece of them that fit into some stereotype about them. In spite of that, I, and most women I know, don't want to be pandered to. It's a terrible idea. It this whole thing makes Dell look like they don't have a damn clue about modern women. Are some of us on diets, yup we are. Do some of us love shoes, yeah. I know I do:) Do some of us love the atrocity that is the color pink, sure. As another poster said, I am sure this has some appeal to some women, but not me. I'm not trying to say that I'm some super special person because of this either. Just saying it's a terrible fucking idea to to stereotype ALL people in a certain race, gender, sexual orientation and then try to sell them a product based on that. It would be like me setting up a website selling country music and only gear it towards Texans, you can put a multitude of other examples here but you get the point. I think I won't be buying from Dell anymore.

BoyIHateMicrosoft! writes: "A friend of mine sent me this link today about a group of MIT students who have created something called a WoWPod. It's like a playhouse for WoW players. It has everything from Refreshing Spring Water, to food(Like Crunchy Spider Surprise of course!) to a toilet and of course the appropriate gaming gear. Here is a link to the article
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/07/wowpod-a-self-contai.html"

Posted
by
Soulskill
on Friday April 24, 2009 @03:36AM
from the point-and-win dept.

angry tapir writes "Chris Jager from GoodGearGuide argues that the rise of casual gaming means near-certain death for hardcore gaming. The sales of casual 'party-friendly' games are massively outstripping the sales of classic hardcore games, and the makers of other consoles are taking note of Nintendo's success in attracting non-traditional gamers to the Wii and DS. There is evidence that Sony and Microsoft are both trying to tap into the casual market, and it's only a matter of time before hardcore gaming goes the way of the Nintendo PowerGlove."
Of course, the trend toward casual doesn't just involve Nintendo — World of Warcraft's success (and the huge effect it's had on the MMO genre) is often credited to its focus on casual gamers. While it's not unreasonable for game studios to want all players to see all of the game's content, perhaps there's a better way of catering to the more hardcore players than tacking on difficulty modes and "do it the hard way" achievements.

Posted
by
samzenpus
on Thursday April 23, 2009 @12:45PM
from the but-thinking-is-hard dept.

Kaliann writes "Toys that respond to brainwaves are the next generation of unique user interfaces. The Washington Post looks at the current market appeal and future uses of technology that can meaningfully respond to the thoughts of a user. Currently the toys have a fairly simple basic idea: the harder you concentrate the more the object moves. A sensor on the forehead picks up brain waves that are associated with concentration, then levitates a ball in response: basic biofeedback. While this may seem to be a rather humble beginning, progress in this field could have astounding consequences in the advancement of technologies devoted to thought-controlled devices. As the author points out, Jedi Beer Pong is within our grasp."

You bet I did. I explained my situation to the enrollment counselor that I had these computer courses and wouldn't need the basics. He told me no problem, they would waive them and I could take a computer elective. I looked at the courses and saw that they didn't have a huge programming class library, but there were some. Then when I got into the courses, they decided to make me take the bullshit. Talked to the enrollment counselor again and he said unfortunately some of the classes I wanted weren't being taught for one reason or another so I HAD to take the basics. He said also they would choose what they thought was "best" for me not me. If I would have known all the information they told me after I signed up, I would have never gone. Lesson learned I suppose.

Another thing to point out, is they make your work in groups called "learning teams". Basically they throw you in with four or five other people, who may live 1000 miles from you or down the road and are expected to work together. Some people refuse to use anything but the class discussion boards. Apparently Skype or Yahoo Messenger is too complicated for these folks. ALL of the big projects you turn in have to be completed by this team. In the ever challenging Intro to Compys for Idiots course, only three out of the six people, myself included, participated in the group so we were stuck with all the work. In the next course, only two, me and another really cool lady, worked on stuff. The kicker is the whole team gets credit no matter what. I know they are trying to teach your teamwork and such, but never EVER have I had a group project at work were I went to someone else and said "Hey. This project blows. I am gonna eat some Doritos and browse Slashdot now. Fuck you." I am sure it happens, before someone says anything, but come on. Anyways just something else for folks to think about.

Although "University" of Phoenix has been around for a while, it doesn't make it any good. Let me tell you folks a little story and I'll try and keep it brief. I had a two year degree from a local business school in Computer Science. I had some nice networking courses and a couple programming courses already under my belt with my two year degree. Well I took off a couple years to work, cause I gots to pay the bills. Well summer 07 I decide I am going back to finish my Bachelors. I start looking into the "University" of Phoenix. I talk to the enrollment and placement counselors and they give me all this nice info on how it's more convenient and I will love it cause Computer Science majors love "U"oP. Having a weird schedule I decide that I really don't need classroom help. I'm going back for programming, that's all on the computer anyways right? Oh how very wrong I was. The first class that was required was.... How to Use the Internet. I shit you not. They said they had students sign up for their Bachelors, in Computer Science mind you, that weren't internet savvy enough to take classes. WTF????? I write it off as some sort of a pre-req and move one. The next course I take is....Intro to Computers. This I can understand because some people don't take any computer stuff til year 3, but I had a class called the same thing on my transcript that I got an A in. Again I am told it's not optional. At this point, I'm stating to get kinda tired of the class and am thinking about leaving. Next up....Intro to Business Systems. This had nothing to do with computers by the way, it was a class about how businesses run. Yeah..... that was what I want to pay for, business courses. I again protest and get the same tired, well you have to take it. They then tell me they don't let me ever choose what to take, they determine it. I wouldn't have taken an ACTUAL PROGRAMMING COURSE til I was almost done. There were only 5 "programming courses" in the curriculum. Intro to JAVA 1 and 2, 2 HTML courses and an SQL course. That was all. Nothing on C, VB, COBOL anything else. They didn't even like do a course where anything about any other language was mentioned. At that point I had blow about 5 grand for four classes so I left. That place was a fucking joke. I learned more this year doing blended courses at a brick and mortar school than I would of the whole time I would have at "University" of Phoenix. In any case folks, just dont go there. It isn't worth your money. Just my two cents.